Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, left, shown this week with University of Saskatchewan research student Camrynn Simon of Battleford. (Submitted photo/Jeremy Cockrill)

By Angela Brown

Creating value-added products

U of S student from Battleford involved in Faba bean research

May 6, 2022 | 3:12 PM

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – The Battlefords – Camrynn Simon hopes to bring more value-added food products to Saskatchewan tables in the future.

That’s why the University of Saskatchewan research student is working on a project to use Faba beans to make a plant-based whipped cream.

“My product not only is it completely plant based, so it would be vegetarian, [but] there is no lactose in it,” Simon said. “So it would be lactose free. Plus, the dairy industry does produce a large carbon footprint. So being able to use these plant products reduces the greenhouse gasses that would be emitted.”

She discussed her project with Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill during the FutureNow symposium at the Saskatchewan Legislature in Regina this week, where 32 students from various Saskatchewan universities showed their research from the past year.

For her project, the Food and Bioproduct Sciences student who hails from the Battlefords, combined coconut oil, Faba bean protein and canola oil, with the canola and Faba beans both originating from Saskatchewan.

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“Whip cream has three main components that make it able to hold its shape when it’s whipped,” Simon said. “That’s solid fat, liquid fat and protein. Those three [items] I replaced with the solid fat being coconut oil, the liquid fat being canola oil and the protein being Faba bean protein… I did a lot of trial and error because this is the first variation of something that has been made like this.”

Simon said she ended up with a “pretty good whipped cream.”

“I haven’t got to taste it yet because we are in the early development, but hopefully [will] over the summer,” she said.

MLA Cockrill said it’s interesting to see what new research projects are being developed for the future of the industry.

“There were a lot of great projects in many different sectors – in healthcare, mining, and obviously Camrynn’s project in the agri-food space…,” he said. “It’s exciting because her research ties in so well with many of the crops that we grow right here in Saskatchewan.”

Faba Canada Ltd. owner Brad Goudy said the industry is seeing more interest in plant-based food products in recent years.

“There has definitely been a movement over the last five or six years in the general public to move towards plant-based proteins,” he said.

Goudy has been working with Faba beans for about seven years and was involved in developing markets for that crop in Western Canada.

“The first market you need to build up is animal feed,” he said. “Then, we had an opportunity to export whole beans into the Middle East, especially Egypt, through ADM [ADM Agri-Industries Company], based out of North Battleford.”

Goudy said Faba beans are unique in a number of ways. They are a meated crop in the parkland area of Saskatchewan that can handle wet conditions better than most other crops. While Saskatchewan has seen drought issues in the last year or so, often it deals with flooded fields in the spring, putting crops at risk. So the Faba bean’s hardiness gives it an edge over many other crops.

As far as food processing is concerned, Goudy said Faba beans are a low fat and low oil crop, which has many advantages.

“They are ideal for dry milling, so the fat or the oil won’t gum up the flour” he said. “But they are also very high in protein. They are one of the highest protein crops we can grow.”

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW